FOOTNOTES
[1] Gheibh baoth ’guidhe ach cha-n fhaigh a h-anam tròcair.
[2] Prov., p. 143.
[3] Is mairg is màthair do mhacan baoth, dar is ann air Di’rdaoin bhios a Bhealltainn.
[4] In Germany it was a common belief that witches met on the night before first May (i.e. Beltane night) on the mountain called the Blockberg, to dance and feast with devils.
[5] The crook or pot-hanger seems to have been an important article of the witch’s paraphernalia. A shepherd in Mull, coming in late from the hill, with his feet wet, placed his stockings to dry on the pot-hanger. An old woman present pulled the stockings down again, saying to the shepherd, “Don’t do that; remember you are a person that travels the hill night and day.” (Cuimhnich gur duin’ thus’ tha siubhal a mhonaidh latha ’s a dh’oidhche.) He never could ascertain what she meant.
[6] The ancient churn was broader at one end than the other, and its narrow end, or mouth, was secured with a prepared sheepskin covering, called fùileach in Mull, iomaideil in Morven and on the mainland generally. The cross or hoop, that secured this covering in its place, should also be of mountain ash. The churn was worked by the small end being lifted up and let down repeatedly.
The rhyme was composed by the bard Ailein Dall.
[8] De’n riabhach thug a’ so sibh?
[10] The tale has this much truth in it, that one of the ill-fated Spanish Armada was blown up in Tobermory Harbour, A.D. 1589. The wonder would be, in those days when public news travelled slowly or not at all, if the history or object of the Spanish fleet should be known in the Highlands, or that it should be known to the Mull people that there was any ship in the fleet but the one that came to their own coasts.
[11] A family of this name has had down to the present day a reputation for witchcraft. The last of them was known to the writer as a poor woman of much shrewdness and inoffensive character. She professed great skill in healing cattle by means of charms and such-like white witchcraft.
[12] Cùl a’s aghaidh mo spòige ri Macillduinn.
[13] Tha m’iteagun’s m’atagun ag atadh ris na h-eibhleagun.
“An do mharbhadh Maol Meanachan nan cat? Mar bhi na h-uile oidhche fhuair mi biadh ’us bainne na d’theaglach, bhiodh do sgòrnan fada riabhach ann am ìnein. Innis do Bhruc Riabhach gun d’eug Bladrum.”
[15] Mhami, mhami! tha mo sheanair ag éiridh.
[16] Cotta, Short Discovery of Unobserved Dangers, 1612. Quoted by Beand, iii. 3.
[17] The author wrote this chapter in 1874.—Ed.
[19] Al. Early on Sunday, to a level stone on the shore.
[28] Others say his servant man saw her first, a tradition which finds a ready explanation for the whole account, in an attempt to discourage Hugh by means of a prevailing superstition.
[29] After his victory Dowart made prisoner of his brother, Lochbuy, and sent him to Kerneburg, a stronghold of which the Dowarts became heritable keepers, on one of the Treshinish Islands, near Staffa, west of Mull. He sent “Black Sarah Macphie” (Mòr dhu nic a Phì), from Suidhe, in the Ross of Mull, the most ungainly woman he could get, so ugly that she was nicknamed “The Pack-saddle” (an t-srathair), to take care of him. Black Sarah, however, became the mother of Murcha Gearr, who ultimately made himself master of his paternal acres.
[30] Campbell of Islay’s West Highland Tales, ii. 83.
[31] An old man in Aharacle, in the north of Argyleshire, was shaved, his face was washed, his hair combed, and his personal appearance attended to in anticipation of his speedy dissolution. When an attempt was made to cut his nails, he told his friends to let them alone: “They are, he exclaimed, but slight weapons for myself, seeing I don’t know where I am going to.” (’S beag an t-armachd dhomh fhìn iad, ’s gun fhios ’am cean’ tha mi dol.)
[32] MacGlumag na mias, o liath tarrang shìoda, burrach mòr.
[34] North Morar is known as Mòrair mhic shimidh and South Morar as Mòrair mhic Dhùghaill.
[37] Fhaic thu ’n t-sean bho liath, ’s i gun bhiadh, a thàillear.
[38] Sgòrnan fada riabhach, ’se gun bhiadh, a thàillear.
[39] Chì-sa, mhic, chì-sa, mhic, chì-sa sid ’s fuaigheam so an dràsda.
[40] Gairdean fada riabhach ’s e gun fheòil gun bhiadh, a thàillear.
[41] Spòg mhòr liath gun fhuil, gun fheòil, gun fhéithean, ’s i gun bhiadh, a tháillear.
[42] Spòg mhòr liath, ’s i gun bhiadh, a thàillear.
[43] In connection perhaps with this is the saying, “Ask everything of a Cameron, but ask no butter from a Cameron” (Iarr gach ni air Camsrhron ach, ach na iarr ìm air Camsrhronach). The clan are also called “The soft Camerons of the butter” (Camsrhronaich bhog an ime).
[44] This is the origin, at least an illustration, of the saying, “Take a wife from hell, and she will take you to her own house” (Thoir bean a ifrinn, ’s bheir i gu tigh fhein thu).
[45] It was in the house of this man, tradition says, that Allan Breac, the true murderer of Colin Campbell of Glenure, when making his escape, stayed the night after the murder. James Stewart of Ardsheal was hung in chains for the murder in 1752.
[46] The excessive use of wine by the West Highland chiefs is borne witness to by the distich:
[51] Highland Society’s Dictionary, sub voce.
[52] Am fear nach dean a Nollaig sunndach ni e chàisg gu tursach deurach.
[53] Chaneil Nollaig gun fheòil.
[65] Campbell’s Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, p. 296.
[67] This derivation has been derived from, and others have been confirmed by Lhuyd (Archæologia Britannica, publ. at Oxford, 1707). The work is folio size, and contains many curious and sensible philological observations. Its principal defect is, that what is valuable is buried in pages of uninteresting glossaries.
[70] In the Hebrides, the name St. Brendan’s Eve for the Whitsunday term is entirely unknown. It is told of a Tiree man of the last generation, that he was promised a croft, or piece of land, by the then chamberlain of the island, who was a native of the mainland, and said, “Your name will be put on the rent-roll on St. Brendan’s Day.” The Tiree man went home and consulted his godfather (goistidh) as to what day the factor meant. “I really don’t know,” said his godfather, “unless it be the day of judgment.”
[72] Campbell’s Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, p. 260.
[78] V. page 293.
[79] When hid in her vacant interlunar cave, i.e. when she is waning and late of rising, the dark period of the night is called rath dorcha (dark circle). “Son of the moon’s dark circle” (mhic an rath dorcha) is an expression of mild objurgation.
INDEX.
- All Fool’s day, 266
- All Saints’ day, 281, 297, 307
- Allan of the Faggots, 45
- Allophylian, 92
- Apparitions of the Dead, 127, 137
- Ardvoirlich Stone, 94
- Arrow-head, 92
- Assumption day, 279
- Autumn, 227, 306
- Avoiding day, 273
- Baal, 224
- “Beard Gateway, the,” tale, 189
- Beast of Odal Pass, tale, 207
- Beckoning Old Man, 187
- Beltane, 267, 270, 272
- Beltane day, 12, 156, 297
- Beltane night, 7
- Bereavement of a taïsher, tale, 139
- Big Allan of Woodend, 83
- Black Duncan of the Cowl, 110
- Black Walker of the Ford, 201
- Black witchcraft, 1
- Black shore, 184
- Blind Allan, the Glengarry Bard, 82
- Boat of Gortendonald, tale, 161
- Boat of Iona, 162
- Bocain, 220
- Bonfires, 282
- Breadalbane’s Warning, 110
- Bridewell, 248
- Brimstone Betty, 154
- Burt’s Story, 36
- Calluinn, 230
- Cameron of Glenevis, 35
- tale, 38
- Cameron of Locheil, 198, 200
- Campbell and the Battle of Gaura, 206
- Candle Day, 244
- Cattle cured of sickness, 56,
- of murrain, 94
- elf-struck, 91
- Hairy Donald’s power to hurt or cure, 10
- Saining cattle, 257, 272, 277
- watched by their dead possessors, 210
- Cats, 34
- Boy eaten alive by cats, 39
- coming to life again, 40
- protection against drowning, 35
- revenge of a, 38
- used in the cure of the evil eye, 61
- witches as, 18, 34
- woman torn by cats, tale, 39
- Celtic Year, the, 224
- Charms, 6, 55
- against danger, tale, 73
- against drowning and dangers in war, 74
- counter-charms, 10
- Eòlas or, 57
- for bruises, 67
- for cattle, 71
- for conferring graces, 80
- for consumption and affections of the chest, 68
- for fulling new cloth, 77
- for general use, 79
- for new-born babes, 77
- for preventing a newly-purchased animal going astray, 71
- for rheumatic pains, 67
- for a sheep, 74
- for sprains, 66
- for toothache, 69
- for young women’s faces, 81
- in a lawsuit, 83
- love charm, 82
- smith’s immunity from bullets, 76
- The Gospel of Christ, 79
- use of, 55
- veteran’s safety, 74
- Christmas or Nollaig, 229
- Black cuttings of, 244
- cheese, 232
- Day of Little Christmas, 238
- Rhymes, 233
- the twelve days of, 243
- Cock fighting, 249, 257
- Coffin, 151
- Contest of a gull and a cormorant, 23
- Cormorants, 43
- Cows
- bewitched, 14
- bringing back a cow’s milk, 71
- milked to death, 9
- old wife’s charm, 73
- Cure of
- axillary swelling, 99
- consumption and leprosy, 100
- epilepsy, 97
- hiccup, 96
- lumbago, 100
- miscellaneous cures, 94
- stiff neck and toothache, 96
- stye and tetter, 95
- treatments of madness, 97
- warts, 94
- whooping-cough, 96
- Danger of strong wishes, 140, 143
- Daughter of the King of Enchantments, tale, 107
- Day of the big porridge, 261
- Day of three suppers, 289
- Days of the week, 291 to 302
- Death, 150
- apparitions of the dead, 127, 137
- death lights, 169
- funeral processions, 155
- howling of dogs, 164
- legend of the death lights, 171
- Spirits seen before a, 172
- taïsher seeing his own, 159
- warnings, 109
- wraiths seen before, 158
- Devil’s wiles, tale, 186
- Dog Days, 276
- Dogs, 163
- as spectre-seers, 163
- howling, sign of death, 164
- Doideag, 26
- Donald of the Ear, 48
- Donald the Fair-Haired, 140
- Doubles, 122, 125, 128, 130, 145, 163
- Dowart, 112, 117
- Dreag or Driug, 111
- Dreams, 27, 209
- Spirits appearing in dreams, 179
- Drowning, charm against, 74
- foreseen by seers, 160
- ill-fated boats, 161
- sailors’ drowning foretold by screams, 168
- Druidism
- druid’s glass, 87
- relique of, 84
- remains of Druid magic, 121
- Dublin University Magazine, 39
- Duncan Ban MacIntyre, 82
- Easter, 263
- Easter eggs, 265
- Egyptians, 87, 254
- Eddy winds of the Storm month, 251
- Elisha, 59
- Ellis’s Brand’s Antiquities, 239, 243, 244, 248, 271, 280
- “Enticing plant, the,” 106
- Envy splits the rocks, 63
- Etymological Dictionary of Scottish Language, 254
- Events happening at a distance, 149
- Evil Eye, 59
- Cure for, tale, 60
- dangers of the, 61
- danger for a horse, 62
- how to detect the victim, 60
- incantations to counteract, 63
- precautions against, 59
- stone for the cure of the, 93
- Ewen M’Corkindale or Ewen of the Dirk, tale, 190
- Ewen and the Carlin Wife, tale, 198
- Ewen and the Skull, tale, 200
- Fairies, 1
- February, 245
- Festival of Fools in Paris, 243
- “Fetch,” or coffins, 119
- Fin MacCoul, 188
- Fish procured by witchcraft, 17
- Flounders, 18
- Friday, 297
- Good Friday, 262, 298
- Frog Stone, 89
- Fulfilment of visions, 157, 158, 159, 160
- Funeral processions, 128, 155, 156
- Gaelic customs on festivals, 229
- etymologies, 224
- divisions of time, 225
- Gaelic months and seasons, 224 to 307
- Games to divine the future, 282
- Gaura, battle of, 205
- Hero of battle, 206
- Gelding season, 251
- Ghosts
- Donald Gorm’s Ghost, tale, 211
- Drowned man’s Ghost, tale, 214 and 215
- “Gospel,” 94
- Hidden ploughshare, tale, 213
- Laying a, 222,
- in name of Duke of Argyle, 223
- of the living, 124
- Shadows, 221
- Song of a, 179
- Silent horseman, 221
- Glen Erochty, 203
- Goblins, 220
- Good Friday, 262, 298
- Gregory’s Western Highlands, 211
- Grey Paw, the, tale, 194
- Gulls, 23, 42
- Hallowe’en night, 144
- Hallowmas, 284, 297, 307
- Handsel Monday, 245
- Hares, 8, 33
- Haunted houses, 217
- seer, 137, 148, 161
- Highland Society’s Dictionary, 226, 244
- Henderson’s Gloves, tale, 135
- Hobgoblins, 181
- Baucan, 181, 182
- Bodach, 187, 190
- dogs and horses, tales, 185, 215
- Etiquette when meeting a, 184
- Fuath, 188
- Haunts of, 183
- precursor of Death, 182
- refuge from, 184
- safety in a circle against, 185
- Hogg’s Witch of Fife, 36
- Holly whipping, 232
- Horses
- as spectre-seers, 163
- fright of a horse, tale, 165
- horse as an omen of Death, 117
- men changed into, 49
- phantom horse, 111
- safe from witches, 13 and 185
- saved by incantations, 63
- Horse-shoe protection against witchcraft, 12
- Hot month, 279
- Hugh of the Little Head, tale, 111
- Hugh M’Lachlan of Aberdeen, 250
- Hugh, son of Donald the Red, tale, 147
- Hump-backed Blue-eye or Gormla, 23, 26, 50
- Ian Garve, tale, 25
- Ignes Fatui, 171
- Ile, tale, 177
- Juniper, 11,
- incantations, 105, 242
- Kate MacIntyre, 51
- King Frog, 89
- Lachlan Mor, 139
- Lachlan the Wily, 112
- Lady day, 261
- Laird of Coll, tale, 8, 139, 146, 180
- Lent, 258
- Lhuyd’s Archæologia Britannica, 230, 258, 264, 269, 294
- Linlithgow, 279
- Little Spring of Whelks, 247
- Lochan Doimeig, 208
- Lochbuy, 112, 118
- Lochlin’s daughter, 100
- Loch Ma Nàr, 101
- Macaulay, Lord, 198
- MacCannel, 173
- Macdonald, Lord, 23, 48, 173
- Macdonall or MacCuïl and the Headless Body, tale, 191
- Macdougall of Lorn, 113
- Macfadyens, 113, 194
- MacGilvray, freed from witchcraft, tale, 47
- MacGregor, 35, 110
- MacIain Ghiarr, 47
- MacIntosh’s Gaelic Proverbs, 297, 301
- Maclachlan Clan, 110, 170
- Maclaine, 113
- MacLean, 118
- Maclean, Hector, tale, 30
- M’Lean of Coll, 102, 139
- MacLean of Dowart, 27, 76, 117, 139
- Bewitched clay figure of, 47
- his bargain with a shade, 178
- clan, 276
- Nose of the, 136
- Song of the, 115
- M’Leod and Dewar’s Dictionary, 250
- MacNeills, 21
- “Macpherson of power,” legend, 20
- Macpherson, 206
- MacRanald, 21
- Magic staff, 6
- Malicious spectres, 133, 135
- Manaman MacLeth, 83
- Martin’s “Western Highlands”, 248
- Martin of the Bag’s day, 277
- Martinmas, 274
- Maundy-Thursday, 261
- May, 272, 273
- May Day, 267
- Mountain ash, 11, 242
- Meyer, 88
- Michaelmas, 281
- Midsummer’s Eve, 276
- Milk carried in a seaweed, 9
- Monday, 292
- Moon, 304
- Nails, 176
- New Year’s Day customs, 238, 241
- fire, 237
- night, 236
- rhyme, 234
- Nightly assignations with spectres, 130,
- tale, 132
- with spirits, tale, 175, 201, tale, 203
- Noises
- depression of a seer caused by, 151
- forerunners of funerals, 154
- heard by people not taïshers, 152
- wailing, sign of death, 166
- Old Wife, 253
- Omens, 145
- Oswy, King of Northumbria, 263
- Otter, 89
- Paschal Lamb, 254
- Peacock’s Guide to the Isle of Man, 70
- Pearlwort, 15, 71
- its uses, 103
- to prevent the return of the dead, 172
- Pennant, 89, 243, 271, 274
- Pet Ram, the, tale, 217
- Phœnicians, 87, 268
- Pins, used to free cows from witchcraft, 14
- Quartodecimans, 263
- “Rag,” the, or the Lakelet of Black Trout, tale, 208
- Rats, 42
- Red Book of Appin, 13
- Red-Headed Donald, 216
- Red Hector of the Battles, 76
- Return of the Dead, 172, 210, 215
- Rhymes, 56
- New Year, 234
- of the wind, 237
- Riddle of the Four Seasons, 225
- Roman Calendar, 263
- Ronag, or ball of hair, 11
- Roodmas, 280
- St. Brendan’s Eve, 275
- St. Brendan the Elder, 274
- St. Bride’s Day, tale, 247
- St. Bride’s Rhyme, 249
- St. Fillan, legend of, 98
- St. Finan’s Eve, 289
- St. John’s Eve, 276
- St. John’s wort, incantation, 104
- St. Kessock’s Day, 259, 290
- St. Patrick’s Day, 250, 259
- St. Swithin’s Day, 277
- Scott, Sir Walter, 87, 193
- Michael, 200, 256
- Second Sight, 120
- hereditary, 126, 131
- marriage foreseen by, 147
- to get rid of, 180
- Seed time, 255
- Seers, 122,
- tale, 138
- haunted by a drowned man, 161
- the four wives of a, tale, 148
- Sharp-billed one, 251
- Sheep, 10, 30
- Shepherd’s adventure, 35
- Shinty, 230, 238, 239
- Shore Thursday, 261
- Shrovetide, 256
- Sinclair, Alexander, and the dairymaid, tale, 135
- Spanish Armada, 28
- Spectral funerals, 128, 155,
- horses, 153
- Spectres, 160
- of the living, 132
- Spirits of the dead, 172
- reverence paid to the dead, 176
- Secrets revealed by, 173
- unholy compacts, tale, 174 f.
- Spring, 225, 250, 260
- Strong wishes, tales, 141
- Stones—
- Burial stones, 177
- Cruban stone to cure diseases of joints, 92
- Fairy-arrow or elf-bolt, 91
- frog stone, 89
- serpents’ bead, 85, 87
- serpents’ egg, 84
- snail bead, 88
- storm stone, 93
- Virtues of the Fairy Spade, 92
- Storm of the Borrowing Days, 25
- Summer, 226
- Sun, 304
- Sunday, 292
- Swarths, 124
- Sweeper, 251
- Tailor and the skulls, 176
- detected among witches, 50
- drowning witches, 15
- Grey Paw and the, tale, 194
- tailor’s hole, 197
- torn by cats, 37
- unlucky experiment in witchcraft, 16
- Taïsher, 123, 126
- moral character of a, 131
- tale, 137, tale, 159
- Tàradh, or the omens of living men, 124, 125, 144, 146
- Tàsg, 166
- Threads used in witchcraft, 6, 10, 61
- Three hog dogs, 254
- Thursday, 296
- Translation of Martin, 277
- Tuesday, 294
- Ulysses of the Highlands, 198
- Unbeliever convinced, tale, 169
- Unearthly whistle, tale, 204
- Waldron, 121
- Wallace, Sir William, and the headless body, 193
- Weather wisdom, 302
- Wednesday, 294
- Weight of the dead, 140
- Wells
- Fian Flag-Stone Well, healing power of, 101
- of Stones, 102
- of the Heads, 114
- of the Nine Living, 102
- Sanna Cave, 101
- to cure toothache and jaundice, 102
- Western Sea poem, 188
- Whales, 44
- Whistle, 250
- Whistling week, 273
- White witchcraft, 54
- Whitsuntide, 274
- Wicken tree, 103
- Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals, 90
- Wine, 211, 212
- Winter, 227, 281
- games, 283
- Witchcraft, Black, 1
- White, 54
- Witches
- as cats, tales, 18, 34
- as cormorants, tale, 43
- as gulls, tale, 23, tale, 42
- as hares, tales, 33
- as rats, 42
- as sheep, 10, 30
- as whales, tale, 44
- bribes to, 2
- celebrated, 50
- definition, 2
- delaying birth of child, 45
- destruction of Captain Forrest’s ship, 27
- disguised as a hare, 8
- doings of, 5
- etymology, 4
- going to sea, 15
- how to detect, 53
- knots to raise the winds, 19
- little witch, the, tale, 22
- on Beltane eve, 270
- plants and trees as protection against, 103
- Portree witches sinking a boat, 22
- powerless on Wednesdays, 296
- raising storms and destroying people, 19
- sinking a vessel by means of a dish of milk, 21
- their own belief in witchcraft, 3, 58
- transformations of, 6
- use of tar, 13
- using clay corpses, 46
- witches and milk, 7
- wounded by silver, 30, 49
- Wizard rising after death, 52
- head-stone, 53
- Year, Celtic, 224
- of the Silverweed roots, 290
- “Yellow Claws,” 23, 26, 51